Category Archives: Research
How sustainable is British biogas?
Biogas is a renewable fuel produced from the controlled decomposition of organic material in the absence of oxygen (“anaerobic digestion”). Biogas contains 50-60% methane, and can be combusted to generate heat and electricity, or cleaned of impurities
Just add water; boiling up high-performing thermoelectrics
Thermoelectric materials can realise direct conversion from thermal to electrical energy and offer unique opportunities to harvest useful electricity from waste heat. Tin selenide (SnSe) is one of the best thermoelectrics currently known as it combines an
From parasitic microfungi towards the origins of Microsporidia
Microsporidia are unicellular eukaryotic parasites, infecting virtually all animals including humans. They are characterized by peculiar morphological and genetic features, which are the result of their extreme adaptation to the intracellular lifestyle. Interestingly, the infection apparatus in
Respiratory function monitoring in ventilated newborns
Respiratory failure is a common problem in premature newborn infants due to the immaturity. In newborns with sufficient spontaneous breathing efforts, non-invasive ventilation support is commonly used, but intubation and mechanical ventilation are often unavoidable. Although intubation
How realistic is the potential global spread of Zika virus and should we all be worried?
Unless you have taken a holiday on Mars for the whole of this year no doubt by now you will have heard of Zika. This is the virus that has emerged in the last 18 months to
Introducing Thermal Wave Transport Analysis (TWTA): a thermal technique for dopamine detection
The glucose sensor is an excellent example of a point-of-care test: patients conduct measurements at home, it is fast, low-cost, and offers easy interpretation of results. There is a growing market to develop similar devices for testing
Maximizing conservation investment for recovering endangered species
Forty years ago the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) went into effect, and today it protects around 1,500 different species. While the ESA has been successful in bringing some species back from the brink of extinction, it
Cellular level and lifetime of a small RNA increase in response to heat shock
Heat shock induces a variety of biochemical changes in cells. In particular, the transcription of most genes and the translation of many mRNAs are stopped. On the other hand, the expression of genes coding for heat shock
Breslow thickness measurements of melanomas around AJCC staging cut-off points
Melanoma is an aggressive and potentially fatal type of skin cancer. Once a suspected melanoma has been cut out, a pathologist will look at it under a microscope to confirm the diagnosis and measure its “Breslow thickness”.
[2]Rotaxane building-blocks for the easy and straightforward synthesis of interlocked molecular shuttles
Interlocked molecular machines are very appealing molecular architectures because they contain several elements that can move the ones with respect to others. The accurate control of the motions of elements in an interlocked molecule leads to, what
News from the quantum zoo
Ever heard of Schrödinger’s cat? It was invented in the 1930ies by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. He wanted to dramatize what many conceived as the weirdness of quantum mechanics, the all-encompassing and singularly successful theory of
Unity is strength in the world of microscopic intermolecular connections
‘Unity is strength’ is one of the most overused motto in human societies, which found a plethora of validations since the ancient Greeks, via the French revolution, and up to the modern period. It is a common
Is chromatin remodeling required to modulate embryonic development?
Chromatin remodeling is active critical process during embryonic development and in cellular malignancies such as cancer. Chromatin is the highly condensed form by which the genomic material (DNA) is packaged in the cell nucleus. The fundamental subunit
Prevention of type 2 diabetes: Prevention of beta cell “karoshi”
The number of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) continues to increase despite the recent advances in pharmacological therapies for T2DM. This fact indicates that we still may not sufficiently understand the pathophysiology of this disease. By
Can we predict who will become pregnant after undergoing in vitro fertilization?
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a procedure where the egg is fertilized by a sperm in a dish outside of the body and the fertilized ovum is then placed into the uterus. The chance of having a
Metabolites from invasive pests: a threat to the functioning of marine ecosystems and an opportunity for the treatment of ovarian cancer
Mitochondria are cellular cytoplasmic organelles, which take part in a variety of cellular metabolic functions. However, these organelles are generally known as the energy-generating powerhouses of the cell, because they play a fundamental role in the production
“Tapping” your way to health
In this age of stress and distress, what if I told you that you could communicate with your nervous system directly to reduce the stress hormones that are circulating in your blood stream, the very same stress
The Ravel case; possible link between non fluent Primary Progressive Aphasia and basal ganglia dysfunction
The Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) syndrome was firstly introduced in 1982. Recently, the primary progressive aphasias were classified into three clinical variants; non fluent/agrammatic, semantic and logopenic. The criteria developed by the investigators were mainly based on
The push and pull of childbirth
Until recently, the mechanism of human labor was poorly understood. New research may help obstetricians better manage abnormal labor. The pregnant uterus is a muscular organ that holds the baby, placenta and amniotic fluid. The uterus rarely
Exosomes isolation protocols: big issue for a big therapeutic challenge
Myocardial infarction (MI) is still the leading cause for mortality in the Western World. Up to date, the only therapeutic strategy is heart transplantation which is limited by the small number of available organs. In the last
